IDEAS ON HOW TO PASS A SUNDAY AFTERNOON.

Sundays, for many people, are a time to cheer on the local team. A day when the family all gather for a big lunch. A chance to put up the feet and read the weekend newspaper.

Or, perhaps, head down to the Council car park, all roped-off with bunting and glow-in-the-dark road cones. And a crew of women in hi-viz vests, inking HUGE pieces of linoleum, ready to be printed…by a chap (also in a hi-viz vest) on a road roller.

 

Yes, just another Sunday here… with members of Printbank Mackay.

The weather while not conducive to racing down to the beach has been relatively warm this month.Note that word”relatively.”  On the night of the Blood Moon I was out at 5am to gaze skyward, dressed in jeans and a sweater.

And the sky was filled with stars! I don’t remember ever seeing such a clear night sky here! And, yes, I did see the Blood Moon. And Mars. No photos though, as I am thwarted by street lights around here  and those orange-y sodium lights at the intersection down the road. But the weather was, that night, favourable.

So…no astronomical wonders to show. How about some orchids? Not mine. I do have some in bud, but they’ll be in bud for a while yet.

However, a friend across town has a collection  and quite a few were flowering so I popped in while The Man was in the dentist’s chair. Not all had name tags and Vic, the orchid man, was not there so …I’ll do my best, but I’m flying blind with some. 🙂

 

A brassocattleya

This looks like a Cattleya…

And this…

This I do know...Phalaenopsis though not its varietal name

Vanda 

Epidendrum radicans  Common as…I have several.But guess what? Not one of mine has flowered! Known as Crucifix orchids, they do come in other colours, but this is the most often seen.

Let’s have another Phalenopsis …

Vic also has pawpaws! (note to self: see if any nurseries are selling plants yet)

Yes, mid-winter, folks! My last tree was flattened by a cyclone and I haven’t bothered to replace it.But I do so love fresh pawpaw…not those poor, sad things the supermarket staff treat like footballs!

Off to don my chef’s hat!

 

 

 

 

 

 

A LITTLE BIT O’ BRASS IS BEST.

Back again! Just as well I didn’t “make a plan” because, clearly, I’m rubbish at such well-ordered things.

Some pretties from my picture box. (All taken with my little camera)

I mentioned a local orchid show.Well, we went, we saw and one of us was smitten. There was a rather nice orchid with several flowering spikes and many more buds,well worth its $35 tag.

And this is where my title comes into play. The chap selling his orchids was a cash-only chap. There might have been the odd bit of shrapnel, chump change, in the bottom of my handbag.But certainly not $35. So I wandered further along the displays…

No name labels that I could see!

But this gorgeous blue, below, is a Vanda.

I did come home with two smaller plants. Luckily, one of the stall-holders was able to take the ubiquitous plastic!

One is  Bolopetalum , apparently a zygo hybrid, according to one site. I’m still on training wheels in the orchid world! But its varietal name is “Midnight Blue-Cardinal’s Roost”.

The other purchase is an Oncidium “Mayfair Trinity.” If the buds open today I’ll post a picture, though I suspect it will be later in the week.

Never mind! I do now have the Clerodendrum nutans that I just know you’ve all been dying to see. No, Muriel, not NUDE ans. Muriel, put you skirt on!

And after another few rainy days things have been having a final fling before we move into what we call winter here.

Hibiscus mutabilis. Due for a major cut-back once the flowers finish. Here it is in its early morning pristine white…

and about half way through the day…

By about 4pm it will be a deeper pink and the next morning a soggy blob. So pretty! And a most obliging “striker” which is a boon to gardeners like myself.

All manner of bird and insect life is making the most of this late season rain. The Antigonon leptopus (coral vine is one of its common names) is crowded with bees all day.

That’s a honey bee, with a much smaller native stingless bee.Can’t see them? OK The honey bee is directly above the word “native” and the little one above the letter”b” in bee on the first line.

And the Cheilocostus have had a mad late flush, too. This is usually sold as “ginger.” (Right after I clicked the shutter I wobbled off the rock I was balancing on!)

This is a great thing for autumn colour. Another obliging striker!

Plectranthus eckloniii

I made a start on cutting down the hibiscus on the back fence…

And now I’m off to drag this monster heap down to the carport.

This strange-looking thing used to be called Justicia. Now, apparently, it’s Ontonaema tubaeform. Or possibly O. strictum   And this particular  one has what’s known as fasciation.

 

 

 

 

NO LONGER M.I.A.

Just popping my head around the door to let you know I am still alive.

We , or as her Majesty might say, “my husband and I…” have been/are still very busy, doing all manner of jobs around the house. Busy, but utterly boring as blog fodder.

Mostly things in the garden.With the weather beginning to get warmer I needed to clear space for new plants. And, with The Man at home most days, we finally cleared the **$&! pergola of dead vines. The problem now is what to plant as replacement? I would dearly love Mucuna bennettii but fear it might be as rampant as the previous Petrea. And the same applies to the Jade Vine, Strongylodon. Ruddy great trusses of 3metres+ flowers might be a bit of a problem, given that the head room under the pergola is a scant 2m!Ooh!but I am so tempted…

Maybe I should just stick to the more manageable orchids…at the moment I have several Phalaenopsis in flower. (Not named varieties*)

and an Oncidium…a wonderful dark wine-y chocolate colour

There are lord knows how many purple and mauve Spathoglottis in the gardens! They drop seed and from time to time I give away some or move them about.Consequently, until they flower I have no idea where each colour is! But I have just bought a white one and it is safely in a pot on the verandah!That’s it, at the back, in bud.

Two more Phalaenopsis live in hanging pots, out in the garden.(*I see this one has a name! Phal. Brother Lawrence x Brother Taida…and some faded writing I can’t read.Hardly surprising since it was a gift almost 12 years ago!

A very brisk wind has sprung up so this one needed a steadying hand. A bit like raspberry coulis dripped on ice cream!

A couple of years ago we acquired an Anthurium. Poor thing became horribly squished in its pot, but the other day I got around to splitting it.I think we now have seven or eight! It’s currently beneath the front steps but will need a new home soon.

And here is the newest Spathoglottis

I know some of you would love to be “over-run” with things like bananas and tropical palms, but it’s not all beer and skittles, y’know. Mrs Next Door doesn’t like the bananas dropping their untidy stems over the fence. And Mr. Up The Back gets his shorts knotted if any of my plants put their heads above the parapet. So I’m stuck with an ugly, bare fence…

Banana bell dangling over the fence.